Episode 114: The Milky Way’s Dark Matter Twin, with Roberto Abraham

Imagine a galaxy that has a similar mass and volume to our own but where somebody turned off most of the stars. Meet Dragonfly 44, the most famous member of a new category of galaxies known as ultra-diffuse. Are they failed galaxies, bits of other galaxies or something even stranger. Today we’re joined at The Star Spot by Professor Roberto Abraham whose team was responsible for the discovery of what’s being dubbed the Milky Way’s Dark Matter Twin.

The The Star Spot podcast is now The Star Spot podcast and radio show. That’s right. Your favourite astronomy program is now travelling through space, specifically the 1280AM frequency. Our broadcaster, CJRU The Scope at Ryerson, is now available on the radio dial, which means you can join us at The Star Spot at 1280AM every Sunday 8PM and Tuesday 6PM Eastern Time.

The killer asteroid that took out the dinosaurs – and much of life on Earth – came from somewhere in our solar system, and Anuj reports we’ve just identified its home base. Then in case you thought the universe was a big place Tony explains how our observable universe just got a whole lot bigger. And did you know Earth has at least one sidekick? Dave explains how a new mission will help study so-called Trojan asteroids that share a common orbit with our pale blue dot.

About Our Guest

Roberto Abraham is Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. He received his PhD from the University of Oxford and then performed post-doctoral work at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics and the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University. Professor Abraham has been awarded the National Science and Engineering Research Council Steacie Fellowship and is Honorary President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s Toronto Centre.